54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an all-black infantry regiment of the US Army that was active from 13 March 1863 to 4 August 1865 during the American Civil War. Massachusetts governor John Albion Andrew decided to create a regiment of freedmen and escaped slaves from the North, led by white officers, with the goal of sending a message of diversity to the military. Led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the regiment had a strength of 1,100 troops, and it fought in the Charleston area of South Carolina in 1863. 272 of the regiment's 600 men, including Colonel Shaw, were killed at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner near Charleston, and it would later fight at Olustee in Florida. On 18 April 1865, it took part in a skirmish of Boykin's Mill, the site of the final battle on South Carolina soil and the last Union officer killed in the war. In August 1865, the regiment was mustered out of service, but it was reactivated on 20 November 2008 as a ceremonial unit of the state national guard, marching at President Barack Obama's inaugural parade.